YAH FOR THE NO RUSH MORNING

With my husband home a bit later than normal due to a Doctor's appointment, it was a timely reminder of one of the things I love about homeschooling ... the lack of rush in the morning and the grumping at the kids to get organised so we are not late for school.  We DO start our school day at 9.15am every morning, we are never late and we never grump in the morning, unless, like this morning, when Steve is home unexpectedly and destroys our routine (it was nice having a coffee with you this morning though :) . No, we weren't late and we did get everything done in time for school to start, it was just that our usual independent routines were lost and I got a tad grumpy!  You see, my children have a laminated list (oh my god, I have a laminator and saying I LOVE it, it is not putting it mildly) of what they have to do in the morning to get ready before schooling starts.  Thanks to this list, my two little friends get on with their jobs in whatever order and at whatever time they want to as long as it gets done before school.  So great is this magic list I no longer need to nag at them to do the everyday morning tasks or remind them of what needs to be done, which is what I used to do each and every morning :(  It honestly was no wonder I used to wake up in the morning tired, just the thought of all that nagging was enough to want to stay in bed. 

Now my morning is delightful, easy going, and relaxed and it is exactly what I need before I spend the day with my children teaching, coaxing learning, and positively reinforcing their efforts to understand.  What I didn't realise until this morning was just how perfect my normal morning without interruptions is!  My children have cottoned onto this morning routine so well I take it for granted that they are so awesome at getting themselves ready in the morning. 

THANK YOU BEN AND POLLY

Yes, I mean you two!

This time first thing in the morning where I get to just worry about myself means so much to me, especially as I have never been one of those people who feel the joys of life in the early hours, talk to me at 9 and I'm good to go!  I am so grateful for this morning routine because I spend the rest of the day devoting myself to making sure they have everything they need and making sure I am always available to them as you need to if you home school kids and expect them to be the best they can be.  That little bit of my time first thing is just the perfect way to start the day and for that I am so thankful to my children.

CUBS AND KEAS AWARDS BADGES

The kids have been doing heaps of work and using their time to get their learning done really well.  So as a reward, I gave them an hour to work on earning some of their Award Badges for Cubs (Ben) and Keas (Pollyanna).  Polly worked on her Healthy Kea badge, which she has almost completed with only two tasks left to finish.  She just needs to help me plan and cook a healthy meal, which she chose this afternoon to be a FISH meal!  So proud, she has such a good understanding of healthy food options thanks to our healthy minds, healthy bodies theme we did last term for our PE/Health curriculum strand.  The other part left to complete was a poster showing the foods she thinks are healthy.  This is the part she completed this afternoon on the computer .. I especially love the food choices she chose (definitely a favourites list for her!) and she did a great job of making the poster look super pretty too!

Polly working on her Healthy Foods Poster for Keas

Ben finished working on the list of things to obtain his Home Help badge and then started the work on earning a new badge, the Collectors Badge.  He wanted to collect Lego (go figure, his number one passion), however, Mother put the foot down on this one given the VAST amount of Lego we already have and the expense and instead suggested stamps as being a more achievable and sensible option!  Yes, somewhat boring but it does mean over 12 weeks he can get two a week and have a nice little collection that can be easily presented.  Speaking of the presenting aspect, this is what he spent the majority of his afternoon working on with my scrapbook supplies.  He sliced up 24 pieces of card to mount the stamp collection on and then he is going to attach them all to a large piece of card ... boy did he work hard at getting each piece exactly the right size and numbered ... yes, anal did come to mind!

Ben working on the presentation for his Collectors Badge for Cubs

SSR: SILENT SUSTAINED READING

Ben's ABSOLUTE favourite time of the week comes on a Thursday, when he has one complete hour of SSR ... I hear you asking why not more often and why am I writing about this on a Tuesday?!

Why not more often?  Ben reads EVERY day for hours, the concept that you can buy a light that attaches to books so you can read in the dark when you are supposed to be sleeping is the equivalent of telling a chocoholic their house is made of chocolate, that is, its dangerous for the rest of us, but pure unabated joy for the person in question.  Ben reads at least 6 250 page plus books every week.  Last night he had cubs, unfortunately this coincided with finishing a book, luckily even though it was dark he was able to finish reading the book by the light of the radio lights in the car ... now that is desperation.  It is also lucky that he reads really really fast, faster than both his parents (who are no slackers) because I had only given him the book at 3.30pm and cubs started at 6.30 :)

Why am I writing about this today?  Well, my wonderful friend and school teacher Alana provided me with the PM Benchmark Reading Tests for Pollyanna on Sunday and they were sitting on my desk.  Polly decided to read the top one last night, and without stumbles read the whole test without picture cues. Humph ... so this morning I thought I had better test her on the next one given the ease of the first one.  So while I tested Pollyanna, I had been planning to do some generic testing on Ben, but given the urgency of needing to get Polly's reading level sorted with the new testing system so I could request the appropriate level books, I gave Ben the news ... YES, for 1/2 an hour he could SSR ... yip apparently I am the best teacher and he didn't move from that seat for 1/2 hour, imagine though the drama when the testing was over and it was time for maths ... No Ben, you may not read through maths, Ben put the book down, Ben you can have the book back at lunchtime, No Ben, if you hurry through your maths you cannot have the book back, but you can have more geometry worksheets, No Ben we will not have unscheduled SSR again because its too hard to make you stop ...... Honestly

We did get to some geometry and Polly did pass the test with flying colours, way to go Polly :) Ben will no doubt finish the book this afternoon and order will be restored until he starts the next one ... you can see why I only give him his reading at 3.30 aye, its far to risky any other way!

MATHS: SHAPE DESCRIPTIONS LEARNING GAME

Freshly laminated cards ready to be cut out!

Cut out and ready to be sorted!

Today I downloaded a brillant game to help with kids learning to describe shapes according to their unique features (faces, edges, corners or vertices). My five year old, Pollyanna, has learnt the shapes and now it is time for her to describe a shape in terms of its qualities and this game is a perfect starter to learning the describing terminology.  I found it at this brilliant UK Primary Resources website that has fantastic worksheets aswell.  The thing I find very easy about the site is that it caters for all primary age groups and the site is really well set up for easily navigating your way round, definately one for the favourites folder!

MOON LEARNING SHARED WITH THE REST OF THE FAMILY

Last night we had a bit of fun to end our week on the Moon.  The kids plated up the moon balls they made early in the week for dessert and I had a fun worksheet/game for the kids and Daddy and Granny to put their knowledge of the moon to good use.  The story was that they had crash landed into the moon and they had 12 things which they had to decide whether they would be helpful for survival or not.  As a treat at the end I had purchased some of t he NASA freeze dried ice cream for everyone to taste.  There were mixed ideas about whether the ice cream was worth taking to space or not.  Pollyanna would definately take it but Ben was happier to leave it behind!  Bring on the real stuff I say!  It was a fun way to finish our week concentrating on the moon :)

OUTSOURCING OF DRAMA

We are concentrating our ART focus this term of drama, and while I have a very dramatic side, it's probably not the type of drama that the kids can learn from! Pollyanna is just loving it and knows lots of the girls that she used to go to school with and enjoys their company.  Ben has a couple of kids in his drama class that he also knows from school.  He is using drama as a socialising tool I suspect rather than for learning about the art of drama, so it may be a one term wonder for him but we shall see.  Maybe the talking will stop as he goes on and the drama will take over!  Anyway today's pictures are of Polly in her drama class.

SEQUENCING IN THE KITCHEN!

Today is Wednesday, the day we do sequencing for English.  Today's sequencing started in the kitchen where the kids had to make moon balls (obviously we are using our space learning to cross curricular purposes!).  At each new part of the recipe I take a photo of the task being undertaken by the kids.  Once the recipe is finished and cooking, the kids do some SSR and I print out the photos of each task, one set for each child (the joys of only having a class of two, make this a really simple job!).  Once the baking is done and cooling the kids get blank worksheets that they then stick the photos in order on and then on the other side of the worksheet, you can see they have to write what the photo is showing them doing.  It is a great sequencing lesson for so many reasons, it's hands-on, they feel part of the sequence, and they have to undertake the learning by partaking in the sequence, visually interpreting it, and then writing about the sequence of events.  The kids love it to because they have delicious treats to eat at lunchtime!

Moon Balls Recipe
Ingredients
I packet of Marie (plain) biscuits crushed
1/2 cup craisens
2 tablespoons of cocoa
1 tin of condensed milk
Coconut or ground almonds for rolling
Method
1. Mix all ingredients together and roll into round balls
2. Roll balls in coconut or ground almonds
3. Put in the fridge overnight to harden and chill
4. ENJOY :)

It's a great quick, easy recipe that the kids can easily achieve under their own steam, which makes them especially proud of the end result.  Even if you did have to get your hands dirty, aye Ben!